Navy restarting Growler training notifications
Published 1:30 am Tuesday, June 9, 2026
Naval Air Station Whidbey Island is resuming notifications detailing EA-18G Growler training activity after a three-month pause.
No official announcement came from the base; rather, it distributed a schedule of aircraft carrier-based flight training operations for the week of June 8-14 on Friday. Notifications were distributed routinely prior to the pause.
Base Public Affairs Officer Mike Welding told the News-Times the decision was “due to changes in the global security environment.” Notifications were initially on March 5 as a “prudent measure for the safety” of base personnel and the community at large, albeit “not in response to a specific threat,” according to a release.
The pause occurred five days after the United States and Israel began airstrikes in Iran on Feb. 28. Growlers based at NAS Whidbey played a significant role in those operations.
Growlers, electronic warfare aircraft, played a “critical” role in “suppressing, jamming and destroying radar systems and surface-to-air missile batteries” as part of Operation Epic Fury, a previous News-Times story states. Images released by the Navy in March confirmed the involvement of two Growler squadrons — 133, “Wizards,” and 142, “Gray Wolves” — in attacks on Iran.
VAQ-142’s 11-month deployment with Carrier Air Wing 8 — which “logged more than 5,500 hours in support of Operation Epic Fury” — came to an end May 11 when the squadron returned to Whidbey, per the Navy. VAQ-133, currently attached to Carrier Air Wing 9, is still deployed in support of the operation in the Arabian Sea, the U.S. Naval Institute reported Monday.
News of the notifications’ return is likely to be welcomed by groups that oppose jet noise on the island. Bob Wilbur of Citizens of Ebey’s Reserve, one such group, criticized the notification pause to the News-Times in March. He found it hard to believe doing so would deter any real threats.
“We thank the Navy for reinitiating the flight schedule, which helps so many plan essential activities to avoid, when and where possible, conflicts with Growler jet noise,” he wrote in an email on Friday.
Training operations are scheduled every day this week at Outlying Landing Field Coupeville and on June 11 and 12 at Ault Field. Other training operations may occur, the schedule notes, but those publicly announced are noteworthy because they take place at lower altitudes.
According to a prior News-Times story, notifications of training operations have been distributed in their current iteration since 2013.
Noise complaints can be submitted via the base’s comment line at 360-257-6665, or via email at NASWI_Noise_Comments@us.navy.mil.
